


The Sky Seems Blue, To The Untrained Eye

by Elhanore



Category: Naruto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-02-05
Packaged: 2018-09-22 05:06:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9584783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elhanore/pseuds/Elhanore
Summary: Team Minato have to go their seperate ways before any of them are ready to say goodbye. But Obito knows he cannot ask them to die alongside him.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is not 100% as it is in the series, but I liked the idea and decided to just roll with it.

The sky seems blue, to the untrained eye. 

It retains its colour for most of the day, until the evening draws near and the sky dies. It dies ecstatically, it dies with a burst of colour spreading from the very heart of the star that dives towards the horizon at horrifying speeds. The sun is on a suicide mission. He doesn’t go willingly, but once he knows he will not live through the day, he decides that his death ought to be grandiose like nothing before it. Pulses of soft orange light radiate across the sky, complimented by the last, bleeding rays of sunshine. The sun isn’t royalty, he is not king of the sky. His reign is temporary, his blood is red. Not blue. Even the sun must bow before greater power. Even the sun dies, eventually.  
Still, a day can feel like a million years. That day did. It had lasted since Obito was a baby, and until his bones ached and his breath came quickly. It seemed to him that his body was aging faster and faster as this day neared an end. A myriad of emotions tore through his broken body. Suddenly, he was back in the reality of the moment. That horrifying, endless day that had felt vaguely ominous since he had breakfast, now that he thought about it. 

His face withered, ruined and gruesome after fate had dragged its hellish claws across his skin and torn him apart from the inside. As if some fist had gripped his skin, and twisted and twisted and twisted until he was sure his eye was going to burst. He had cried and screamed and begged and pleaded and put on a brave face for his friends. His comrades. But he knew he was dying and he was only thirteen and he should never have been in that situation in the first place. They were at war, he knew. He knew all to well. He was a ninja. Finally. He should have been prepared for death to come for him at any moment. Yet as he felt his breath rattle in his ribcage and his thirteen-year-old heart beating faster than it should have been able to, he realized; he wasn’t ready.  
He didn’t want this.

No, not now. He finally had the means to be a better version of himself. He could improve and train and grow stronger than anyone before him. The Sharingan had finally come. No one thought him likely to ever activate it. His father hadn’t, that he remembered. And he had died because of it. Obito would not meet the same fate, he would live and grow stronger than Kakashi, stronger than Minato. He would live without fear, finally. The eyes of his forefathers would be his, and he would live accordingly. Use it to do good. Use it to become Hokage and win the heart of a certain teammate. His luck was going to turn. He knew that as he saved Kakashi’s life for the very first time. In that moment, he knew he was destined for greatness. He would finally be on the same page as the stoic, white-haired kid he had envied for so long. Perhaps they would even grow to be friends. Proper friends. The way they worked together to rescue Rin was a textbook example of great teamwork. A pair that balanced each other perfectly. 

Only they didn’t. And it cost Obito his life. He was scared and angry and he felt cheated of the fate he thought he deserved. The horrified faces of his teammates eventually came into view as his vision went foggy. Rin was crying. She was holding his hand and stroking his hair and telling him everything was going to be alright and Minato was going to find them and they would move the boulder off of his body and they were going to walk out of this forest and go back home for dinner. She would pay for all of their meals, she promised. But Obito couldn’t feel his arm. He couldn’t feel his leg. There was only numbness and it was spreading faster than his consciousness could keep up with it. Kakashi was standing too far away for him to make out his face, but he moved closer. There was a tremor in his step that had never been present before. Rin kept talking while Kakashi moved closer, and Obito felt loved. He could listen to her voice for hours and hours on end. He loved her, he was suddenly very aware of this. Would he tell her, as a parting gift? 

Her voice got thicker and thicker and her sobs came more frequently. Her palm was sweaty in his. God, she was beautiful. Even though the frantic brush of her fingers tore painfully at his scalp.  
Kakashi had caught up to them, and Obito could make out his features. Despite the mask, he managed to portray a feeling of absolute, all-consuming horror. The shape of his mouth was vaguely outlined in the dark fabric; it hung open in disbelief. Even though he really didn’t want to look, Obito’s gaze travelled upwards towards Kakashi’s. His left eyelid hung open only half-way. A steady trickle of blood travelled down his cheek from the gash left by the attacker’s blade. The eye underneath was glassy, as far as he could see. It had to be completely ruined. They had no way of recovering his eyesight. His career as a Jounin would be over before it even properly began. 

And Obito had forgotten to buy him a gift. 

An idea formed in the shattered remnants of his quickly-fading consciousness. Minato wouldn’t be here in time. He would die. He would die at thirteen, and leave nothing but a poor impression of himself in his teammate’s memories. No. He couldn’t go like this. Not without getting Kakashi a gift. After all, it wasn’t everyday that your teammate became a Jounin. They were used to him being late by now.  
Obito spoke softly, softer than a dying child had any right to. He wasn’t dying, Rin tried to tell him. Minato could still come. They could still save him. Proceeding with such a procedure without professional medical-ninja would be incredibly dangerous. Obito couldn’t shake his head, or roll his eyes, but he gripped her hand a little tighter (Rin almost screamed. His hand was too limp, even as he tried to squeeze hers. She didn’t want to lose him) and she understood. Rin’s sobs came to a halt, and she steadied her breath as she accepted his final wish. Her hands were steady as she gripped the dagger. Kakashi didn’t comply immediately. He didn’t want to. But at least he didn’t argue. It was unusual, but a welcome change in their interaction. Obito took a shaky breath to steady himself for that which would probably be immensely painful and-!

He screamed. 

The air was knocked out of his lungs as he felt the dagger dig under his eye. It was so much worse than he could have imagined. He wanted to scream at them to call it off, he didn’t want to die in so much pain. It wasn’t right. He was suddenly so very, very conscious as the blade dug and prodded in places he had never felt pain before. It was as if it cut out some of the numbness that came seeping from under the boulder. He gave away his heavenly gift to his greatest rival as he screamed and thrashed in unbearable pain. This was not the way he planned on leaving the world. Perhaps there was something poetic about leaving and entering the world the same way: screaming and crying. If there was, he could not think of it at the moment. There was only the blade, and the unfamiliar feeling of his eyeball leaving its socked and a thin-fingered hand holding compressors against his wound. 

It was over quickly. Rin truly was amazing. Obito should have told her more often. 

He couldn’t see them anymore, couldn’t see the faces of his friends. There was a deep rumble spreading from the ground underneath them and into the walls and remnants of the cave’s roof. It was over. His pain would be over soon. It was almost a relief. Somewhere to his side he could hear Kakashi’s muffled voice warn Rin that they had to go. They had to leave, or they would die too and his sacrifice would have been in vain. Obito was glad that he said this, because Kakashi understood. They were on the same page for once. Rin sobbed, and tore at his hand. She didn’t want to leave him to die alone. A part of him wanted to grip onto her hand and cling to it for dear life because she was right, he didn’t want to die alone. But Obito was relived as Kakashi’s hand untangled Rin’s fingers from his. He was never so selfish that he would force his friends to die alongside him, even if he was scared of dying alone. He had done most things alone in his short life, he could manage with one more. Perhaps Obito imagined it, but it could have felt almost like Kakashi squeezed his hand slightly. 

The rumbling grew louder, and Team Minato had to go their separate ways. Obito could hear their feet shuffle, and suddenly they jumped and were gone. He was alone again. Like he had been for so very long. It felt wrong. He felt lost. And so tired. So very, very tired. His consciousness was drifting, like birds migrating in the winter. As his last conscious thought left him, he remembered that he never got to tell Rin that he had loved her. Loved her like no one else had loved her. Loved her like she was the moon, and he was the sun, and she would be is downfall but he would be okay with it because he always knew she was going to be the death of him. And he could ask for no sweeter poison. 

And then the walls came crashing down, and Obito died with a sigh.

Only he didn’t.


End file.
